Author Topic: Managing Ground Force Formations  (Read 3557 times)

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Offline Kelewan (OP)

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Managing Ground Force Formations
« on: September 20, 2019, 07:23:01 AM »
Hi,

AFAIK Managing Ground Forces is not completely implemented jet. And I wanted to share my ideas of how to manage ground force formations and discuss them without cluttering the suggestions thread.
But i will put a link in the suggestions thread.
 
At the moment the following features are implemented in C#

IHMO the following activities are still missing:

  • reinforcing of formations
  • changing formations to new formation template
  • upgrading unit classes / formation elements

To allow the reinforcement or the change to a new formation template the formation needs to know which template to match.
An easy way would be to store the information which template to use in the formation. This could by default be set to the template used
to create this formation, but we should be able to change it.

In the "Ground Forces" window in the "Order of Battle" tab or new tab there could be a summery sowing the number of "missing" and "additional" units grouped by unit class
and the following Actions to manage the Formation.
  • Queue missing units in Ground Force Construction Facility, (with drop down to select colony where a reinforcement formation is queue)
  • Move additional units in new reinforcement Formation
  • Reinforce missing units form Formation, (with drop down to select a formation on the same body)

Using Steves recent ground battle in the Crusade test campaign
Reinforcing the formations on Procyon-A I would take the following steps.

  • select the formation to reinforce
  • select a body with "Ground Force Construction Facility", and  klick "Queue missing units"
    repeat step 1 and 2  (It would be nice if multiple formations could be selected at once)
    This would queue multiple Formations  (or one big Formation) with 3716 Guardman, 314 Chimera, 294 Lascannon, 43 Hydra Flak, 10 Vox Caster, 9 Regimental HQ,
    45 Leman Russ, 4 Annihilator TD, 15 Hydra Flak Tanks, 3 Vox Vehicles, 2 Command Tanks and 159 Supply Vehicle
  • wait for the reinforcement formation/s to be trained
  • move the new troops to Procyon-A I
  • select the formation to reinforce
  • select the formation to reinforce from and klick "Reinforce missing Units"
    repeat step 5 and 6

Changing to an other/changed formation template would work in the same way,

  • Change the Template "Formation Template" tab to change the template
    for all formations using this template or create a new template and select it as new template for your formation to use.
  • Queue missing Units in new reinforcement formation
  • Wait till the formation is build, and move them to the destination
  • Reinforce missing units form the reinforcement formation, this will remove the reinforcement formation as all units will be in the updated formation
  • Move additional units in new reinforcement formation
  • Update/Scrap the old units in the reinforcement formation

The next missing feature on the list is changing the class of a unit.

As a reminder: a unit classes will not update the stats if newer  technology becomes available, so upgrading unit classes and formations will be common.
5)   Arm: The Armour Strength of the Unit. This is based on the armour available at the time of design and is not upgraded when newer technology becomes available (as with ship designs).
6)   HP: The Hit Points of the Unit. This is set at design time and does not change.
7)   Components A to D: Abbreviations for each of the components included in the Unit Class. These are the same abbreviations as used on the Components table in the Unit Class Design tab. As with armour and hit points, any components use the technology available at the time of unit design. To see the detailed view of the components, click on the Unit. The Unit Summary will be shown in the bottom section on the left hand side.

I think it is useful to distinguish between two cases:
  • (upgrade case) only racial tech changed
  • (change case) where armor type, components or capabilities, is changed.
    I am not sure if change of base type should be possible.

For the upgrade case. The racial tech will only improve and has no influence on the build costs of the unit. So there is no reason to ever build units with old racial tech.
I understand that magical and instantly changing the armor and weapons for all units in the empire is unreasonable from "C# Aurora Lore" point of view and would remove
some interesting logistics challenges, and I don't want to remove these challenges completely. But changing every unit class and every formation every time i research a new
armor or weapon tech would be very tedious.

I suggest that we use sub-classes of units classes, that are automatically managed by Aurora.
Formations could contain multiple elements of the same class, but different sub-classes (e.g. Reinforced by newer build units)

If we build a new Formation aurora checks for each formation element if there is a sub-class for the unit class with the same tech modifiers.
If yes, we use this sub-class. If not create a new sub-class for the formation tech (mark the old sub-class as obsolete).
The "Ground Force Construction Facility" has an Option to upgrade a formation, which will check all unit elements, create a new sub-class if needed
and upgrade the element to the newest sub-class and recombine the elements of the same unit class
In addition to the already described actions for the formation management i would add "Upgrated from Formation, (with a drop down to select the formation)" which for
each unit class compare the sub-classes in and move the units between the formations so that the number of units for the unit class is the same but the newest units are
the the Upgraded formation)
 
Using again Steves Crusade test campaign and the example reinforcement we did before the Palladius Armoured Regiment would contain

ForamtionPalladius Armoured Regiment
Leman Russ.v136
Leman Russ.v224
Annihilator TD.v14
Annihilator TD.v22
Hydra Flak Tank.v26
Vox Vehicle.v11
Vox Vehicle.v21
Command Tank.v22
Supply Vehicle.v224

Upgrading Palladius Armoured Regiment with a Formation that contains 179 Leman Russ.v1 and 30 Leman Russ.v2

ForamtionPalladius Armoured RegimentReinforcement Regiment
Leman Russ.v136179
Leman Russ.v22430
Annihilator TD.v14
Annihilator TD.v22
Hydra Flak Tank.v26
Vox Vehicle.v11
Vox Vehicle.v21
Command Tank.v22
Supply Vehicle.v224

We will end with

ForamtionPalladius Armoured RegimentReinforcement Regiment
Leman Russ.v16209
Leman Russ.v2540
Annihilator TD.v14
Annihilator TD.v22
Hydra Flak Tank.v26
Vox Vehicle.v11
Vox Vehicle.v21
Command Tank.v22
Supply Vehicle.v224

For the sub-class naming I would use either increasing numbers  (like I used in my examples) or year followed by additional numbers/characters if needed, but it needs to be something
that aurora can handle without userinteraction. If aurora detects that a sub-class is not needed anymore (obsoleted and no units of this subclass exist anymore) the sub-class will be deleted.

The unit class  change case is IHMO  simple compared to the upgrade case, Create a new unit class, and select the "Ground Force Construction Facility" select change unit class as aktion,
select formation, select element to change, enter number of units to change and the unit class to change to.
 

 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Managing Ground Force Formations
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2019, 12:52:11 PM »
Hopefully Steve will progress long enough in the test campaign that upgrading ground units becomes reality, so that we can see if it's a micro-management hell or a straightforward process.
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Managing Ground Force Formations
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2019, 04:58:15 PM »
Hopefully Steve will progress long enough in the test campaign that upgrading ground units becomes reality, so that we can see if it's a micro-management hell or a straightforward process.

Haven't done much in the last month due to other commitments. Played a little a few days ago and campaign is on hold as a spoiler is faced with a situation that isn't coded yet :)  I should finally have some free time this weekend to correct that.
 
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